Official jackets for BGN 1,099 and sports jackets for BGN 899 will be worn by the Bulgarian athletes at the Winter Olympic Games in Milan Cortina 2026. And each member of the Bulgarian delegation will be wearing clothes for a total of over BGN 4,300.
This is clear from the public procurement concluded by the team of Stefka Kostadinova, who lost the elections for the chairman of the BOK, according to an investigation by “Sega”.
The Olympic champion in the high jump from Atlanta`96 could not win the vote on March 19 against Vesela Lecheva and for several months she literally disappeared from the public space. The IOC recognized Lecheva’s election and stopped all official communication with Kostadinova and her team.
But until the court’s ruling on the appeals against the decisions of the general meeting, only Kostadinova has the right to handle the committee’s finances, the vast majority of which are state subsidies. That’s why on August 25 her team at BOK has announced a public procurement for “Delivery of sports equipment and official clothing for the needs of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games”.
The estimated value was BGN 373,470 without VAT (€190,952.18), of which BGN 244,870 for equipment and BGN 128,600 for formal wear. It is planned to deliver 80 sets, which actually means a pretty solid amount per person – BGN 4,668, considering that the order includes neither shoes (sports and/or formal) nor casual shoes rucksacks nor bags to travel with all these clothes.
On the last possible day – September 25, exactly at 1:50 p.m. (the deadline was 11:59 p.m.), an offer was submitted by the only company that participated in the competition – “Max Sport 2000” EOOD. The proposal was signed electronically by Velislava Varbanova, notarized by the manager of the company Iliya El-Feleki.
The offer of BGN 349,380 is almost as much as the forecast value of the BOK order: for equipment BGN 227,220 (EUR 116,175.74), and for official clothing BGN 122,160 (EUR 62,459.42). This makes over BGN 4,300 per person. The committee of three external persons (under Article 51 of the PPZOP) – Hristina Grozeva, Petyo Zaberski and Damian Dikov, approved the proposal and “Max Sport 2000” won the contract.
The subject matter of this company does not envisage anything related to clothing. It is described in the Commercial Register that it carries out advertising, impresario, consulting, publishing, printing, film, commercial and intermediary activities. However, “Max Sport 2000” is known as a company importing and selling winter sports equipment to some of the most prestigious and expensive companies in this industry. It is also announced on its website that it is an official partner and supplier of the ski federation and … of the BOC, whose competition it won as the only participant.
The products it offers are quite expensive, and this is inevitably reflected in the unit prices of the clothes with which our Olympians and the entire Bulgarian delegation will be dressed in Milan Cortina 2026 (the offer does not say which manufacturer they will be).
From the breakdown, it is clear that Stefka Kostadinova’s team provided clothes for 52 men and 28 women. All offers are for 80 sets, only the hats (69 BGN each) are 100.
The most striking are the prices of the jackets – 1099 BGN for the official ones and 899 BGN for the warm ones. Warm trousers are 569 BGN, leisure jackets are 399, and vests are 289. There are also formal trousers for 309 BGN, a polo shirt for 109 BGN, and fleece sweatshirts for 139 and 159 BGN (this is the only difference – the women’s are 20 BGN more expensive), as well as t-shirts for 65 BGN.
In the end, each set of equipment and official clothing of a member of the delegation amounts to BGN 4,343 for a man and BGN 4,363 for a woman.
Another question is how big the Bulgarian delegation will be in Milan Cortina 2026. At the moment, the officially won quotas are 14 – two in alpine skiing, 8 in biathlon, 3 in cross-country skiing and 1 in figure skating. Three snowboarders and ski jumper Vladimir Zografski will certainly be added to them.
But even if we assume that the athletes will be 20, and the coaches and technical teams another 30-35, this means that the order for 80 kits is boldly inflated, because it is unrealistic to have another 25-30 officials in the delegation.
And the issue of accreditations, accommodation, determining the composition of the entire delegation and other technical details is not within the prerogatives of Stefka Kostadinova’s team, but of Vesela Lecheva, with whom the IOC communicates officially on these issues. Lecheva’s team even announced that they have not yet been informed by BOC officials about what is happening with the equipment and official clothes of our Olympians and the Bulgarian delegation for Milan Cortina 2026.
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